Turn your Robot into Precision Machining Equipment

 Drilling, Routing, Trimming and other machining operations are high-force applications historically handled by dedicated equipment, such as CNC’s. To increase flexible manufacturing and to reduce cost, robots are more and more used in such applications, with heavy sophisticated end-effectors mounted at their ends. Aerospace is one industry in particular where such installations are becoming prevalent.

However, the high machining forces involved combined with the typically very high level of positional accuracy expected in these applications make those difficult candidates for robot-cell calibration alone with the DynaCal™ system (see “Absolute Accuracy Robot-Cell Calibration”). These high-precision machining applications instead require use of the DynaGuide™ solution for Adaptive Robot Control purposes, with usage of an external measurement device ‘throughout production’ generally representing a financially justifiable option (see “Adaptive Robot Control for Ultimate Accuracy”).

Absolute Accuracy Robot-cell calibration with the DynaCal™ system should be performed as part of the initial setup of the station, to maximize the ensuing success of the Adaptive Robot Control process (for varying reasons, in particular to make the compensation process at the TCP as efficient as possible). Another reason to use the DynaCal™ system, is to calibrate as accurately as possible the spatial relationship between the desired TCP (e.g. at the end of the drill bit) and the measurement point(s) on the end-effector: this step is critical to fully benefit from the extremely high accuracy otherwise attainable with the DynaGuide system.

In fact, after the initial robot-cell calibration, use of a tool such as the ropod™ system throughout production is highly recommended, in order to continuously verify and correct for any possible deviations of the TCP (see “Maintain your Robot’s Accuracy throughout Production”) – therefore insuring that the relationship between the TCP and the measurement point(s) remains accurate at all times, in turn guaranteeing the success of the Adaptive Robot Control process.